Richard M. Weaver: The Power Of Words

Words are powerful tools that should be used wisely by writers. Words have the power to build and tear down. They have the power to make someone agree and disagree. But, words are only as powerful as the context that surrounds them and the meaning that is given them. This is a concept that Richard M. Weaver talked about in his book Language is Sermonic and what George D. Gopen stressed in his book The Sense of Structure. These were two books that were used in my Editing Essentials class that helped me understand the importance of the meaning and context of a word.
In the books of Gopen and Weaver, there are key points that were stressed and brought to my attention as I read the books and completed the exercises. In Gopen’s book, I was taught the importance of considering the reader’s expectations so that my essays can provide information that may not be altogether interesting, but easily understood and followed by the reader. But before I was introduced to the reader …show more content…
In order to speak truth, we must address the whole of our audience and not just their logical side. When writing with our readers in mind, we consider their emotional, logical, and sometimes physical concerns and aspects that would otherwise be missed in our writings. Weaver stressed this point as he stressed that language should be sermonic so that the whole of man is addressed not just his logical thinking side (203). If we only address the logical man, we will not have an impact on the soul. We will be like a ringing gong in the ears of our readers because we forget to address the whole of their being. This class has taught me how to write sermonically so my writing addresses the entire man and not just his logic, emotion, or valuing